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March 16, 2006, 11:54 AM ET
Gates Dismissive of $100 Laptop
Many technology leaders have praised a nonprofit effort supported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to build a $100 laptop for schoolchildren in the developing world. But Bill Gates is not among the project’s fans. Mr. Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and chief software architect, was dismissive of the project in remarks at an event for govenment leaders yesterday. If you’re going to give computers to the poor, he said, “geez, get a decent computer, where you can actually read the text and you’re not sitting there cranking the thing” while you use it. (The proposed $100 laptop includes a hand crank so that the device can be used even when no power outlet is available.) “I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s going to buy the $100 thing. But it’s great, you know, the more computers the better.”
Leaders of the project, called One Laptop Per Child, have decided not to use Windows software for their low-cost laptops, but instead will install the free, open-source Linux software.
Categories: Company-Watch
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